First pick
Bienwald
Wood or forest
12,443 ha8 km of path
1 h 45 minto walk all 8 km of path
14 km eastfrom the center
Ligne de la Lauter
Directionsto a point inside
Photo: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France · CC BY 2.067%of the land protected
Outdoors in Wissembourg · protected areas, woods and footpaths
67% of Wissembourg’s land is protected for nature
54% of Wissembourg is mapped woodland. Wissembourg has 79 km of waymarked hiking routes. 77 km of footpaths cross Wissembourg (1.6 km per km²). France has no Outdoors Grade yet: these are the figures, each beside the compared towns’ median.
Protected areas
67%
of the commune’s land
Compared town: 0.1%
Woodland
54%
of the land, mapped on OpenStreetMap
Compared town: 13%
Footpaths
77 km
1.6 km per km²
Compared town: 1.7 km per km²
Hiking routes
79 km
waymarked, GR and others
Compared town: 0.3 km per km²
Parks & woods
2
named, in or within 400 m of the commune
First: Bienwald
Throughout this page, the Bas-Rhin median and the France median are the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade), each figure its own median.
What kind of place
What kind of outdoors place is Wissembourg?
Read from the data: what stands out first, good and less good.
Protected countryside67% of the land lies in protected areas.A wooded commune54% mapped woodland, more than in 93% of compared French towns, against 13% for the median compared town.On waymarked routes79 km of GR and other hiking routes cross the commune.
What sets Wissembourg apart: its protected countryside, then its woods.
Against French towns
How Wissembourg compares with French towns
Each figure against the 3,798 compared French towns (communes with an overall grade): the marked bar is the town’s, the line the median. Described, not graded.
Protected areas67%Share of the land in a national park, regional nature park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site
89out of 100
Woodland54%Share of the land mapped as forest or woods on OpenStreetMap
93out of 100
Footpaths1.6 km per km²Km of mapped footpath and track open on foot, per km² of the commune
48out of 100
Hiking routes1.6 km per km²Km of waymarked hiking routes (GR and others), per km² of the commune
94out of 100
Percentiles among compared French towns; ties count half.
Towns its size
Wissembourg has the 18th fewest footpaths per km² of 41 towns its size
The 40 compared French towns nearest in population (7,447 to 7,682 residents), by km of footpath per km². Hover for each one’s protected land and woods; click for its page.
From Saint-Prix (8.4 km per km²) to Hasparren (0.3 km per km²).
Every town in the comparison
| Town | Paths (km/km²) | Woodland | Protected | Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saint-Prix Val-d'Oise | 8.4 | 64% | 0.5% | 132 km |
| 2 | Gérardmer Vosges | 6.3 | 70% | 100% | 445 km |
| 3 | Huningue Haut-Rhin | 4.9 | 0.9% | 0% | 423 km |
| 4 | Saint-Germain-lès-Corbeil Essonne | 4.8 | 28% | 0% | 177 km |
| 5 | Sausset-les-Pins Bouches-du-Rhône | 4.2 | 5.8% | 51% | On it |
| 6 | Lesneven Finistère | 3.4 | 4% | 0% | 6.8 km |
| 7 | Saint-Apollinaire Côte-d'Or | 3.3 | 0.4% | 0% | 403 km |
| 8 | Clisson Loire-Atlantique | 3.1 | 9% | 0% | 54 km |
| 9 | Saint-Péray Ardèche | 3 | 27% | 11% | 165 km |
| 10 | Fabrègues Hérault | 2.9 | 7.6% | 8.4% | 9.4 km |
| 11 | Falaise Calvados | 2.8 | 4% | 0% | 43 km |
| 12 | Saint-Yrieix-sur-Charente Charente | 2.5 | 20% | 8.7% | 74 km |
| 13 | Faverges-Seythenex Haute-Savoie | 2.4 | 65% | 100% | 239 km |
| 14 | Crozon Finistère | 2.4 | 15% | 100% | On it |
| 15 | Villars Loire | 2.3 | 0.1% | 0% | 213 km |
| 16 | Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne Savoie | 2.2 | 37% | 0% | 190 km |
| 17 | Châteaubourg Ille-et-Vilaine | 2.1 | 16% | 0% | 57 km |
| 18 | Bourg-Saint-Andéol Ardèche | 2 | 56% | 6.1% | 101 km |
| 19 | Saint-Maixent-l'École Deux-Sèvres | 1.7 | 2.5% | 0% | 72 km |
| 20 | Villard-Bonnot Isère | 1.7 | 28% | 0% | 203 km |
| 21 | Céret Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.7 | 61% | 2.7% | 26 km |
| 22 | Tullins Isère | 1.6 | 27% | 0% | 211 km |
| 23 | Toulouges Pyrénées-Orientales | 1.6 | 0.2% | 0% | 17 km |
| 24 | Wissembourg Bas-Rhin | 1.6 | 54% | 67% | 429 km |
| 25 | Saint-Berthevin Mayenne | 1.5 | 17% | 0% | 74 km |
| 26 | Mimizan Landes | 1.3 | 75% | 8.2% | On it |
| 27 | Pordic Côtes-d'Armor | 1.2 | 8.1% | 0% | On it |
| 28 | Melesse Ille-et-Vilaine | 1.1 | 3.7% | 0% | 38 km |
| 29 | L'Aigle Orne | 1.1 | 8.4% | 0% | 78 km |
| 30 | Langon Gironde | 1 | 12% | 3.9% | 58 km |
| 31 | Jaunay-Marigny Vienne | 0.9 | 9.6% | 27% | 123 km |
| 32 | Parentis-en-Born Landes | 0.8 | 69% | 13% | 16 km |
| 33 | Sucé-sur-Erdre Loire-Atlantique | 0.8 | 13% | 25% | 48 km |
| 34 | Biguglia Haute-Corse | 0.8 | 2.9% | 21% | On it |
| 35 | Rosporden Finistère | 0.8 | 4.7% | 0% | 11 km |
| 36 | Pluvigner Morbihan | 0.7 | 19% | 0% | 9.6 km |
| 37 | Auxonne Côte-d'Or | 0.7 | 42% | 8.8% | 413 km |
| 38 | Bain-de-Bretagne Ille-et-Vilaine | 0.7 | 5% | 0% | 65 km |
| 39 | Déols Indre | 0.6 | 4.6% | 6.9% | 225 km |
| 40 | Loireauxence Loire-Atlantique | 0.3 | 8.3% | 10% | 84 km |
| 41 | Hasparren Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 0.3 | 22% | 7.5% | 22 km |
The map
Parks, woods, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park or wood. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is the commune’s boundary.
Green: parks, gardens and woods mapped on OpenStreetMap, named or not.© OpenStreetMap contributors · INPN / PatriNat · IGN
Places to walk
Parks and woods to walk in, in and around Wissembourg
Named parks, gardens and woods in the commune or within 400 m, the biggest and best-pathed first: Bienwald leads, at 12,443 ha. Directions go to a point inside.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL): named parks, gardens and woods; sizes are the whole site.
Protected areas
Protected land in and around Wissembourg
The protected areas reaching the commune, and the nearest: national parks, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites.
Regional nature park
Vosges du Nord Regional Nature Park
37% of the commune0.2 km from the center
Natura 2000 site
La Lauter
30% of the commune2.1 km from the center
Share of the commune’s land
Any protected area67%
Regional nature park37%
Natura 2000 site30%
Designations overlap (a regional park can hold a Natura 2000 site), so the rows don’t add up; the first counts each piece of land once.
67% of Wissembourg’s land is protected, more than in 89% of compared French towns; the median compared town in Bas-Rhin has 0.1%. A regional nature park is a charter between communes to look after a landscape: farming, building and hunting go on inside it.
Source: INPN / PatriNat, protected areas July 2026, Natura 2000 December 2024; shares of IGN’s commune boundary.
Footpaths and woods
77 km of footpaths and 79 km of hiking routes cross Wissembourg
Paths, bridleways, steps and tracks open on foot, and waymarked hiking routes, mapped on OpenStreetMap inside the commune; woods are mapped forest and woodland, private woods included.
Footpaths
77 km
1.6 km per km²
Hiking routes
79 km
waymarked: 1.6 km per km²
Woodland
54%
about 25.8 km² of mapped woods
Km per km² of the commune · mapped on OpenStreetMap
WissembourgBas-Rhin medianFrance median
Footpaths1.6
Hiking routes1.6
012 km per km²
Share of the land · mapped woods and forest
WissembourgBas-Rhin medianFrance median
Woodland54%
0%50%100%
That is less than in 52% of compared French towns for footpaths per km², and for woodland more than in 93% of compared French towns. Hiking routes often follow paths and lanes already counted, so the two lengths overlap: don’t add them. Every home in Wissembourg is within 800 m of a mapped park or wood, as in most French towns.
19 named hiking routes within 2 km
GR (long-distance)Other named walk
GR 53214 km
Anneau vert14 km
disque jaune12 km
Pfälzerwald Gelber Punkt #49.6 km
Circuit du Geisberg9.2 km
disque vert9 km
Schweigen-Rechtenbach - Grenzlandtour8.6 km
Rotes Kreuz6.5 km
Circuit Weintor - Wissembourg6.2 km
Circuit du Luchsenkopf6.1 km
Circuit du Muehlenkopf3.9 km
Pfälzerwald Blaues Kreuz3.3 km
+7 more
GR 532 passes within 2 km of Wissembourg.
Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracts of October 25, 2026 (Geofabrik).
When to get out
The best walking months in Wissembourg: April to September
Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at Preuschdorf, 15 km away, and the daylight at the town’s latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 15 to 30 °C and little rain for the place.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 8.7 | 10.1 | 11.7 | 13.6 | 15.3 | 16.2 | 15.8 | 14.4 | 12.5 | 10.7 | 9.1 | 8.2 |
| High (°C) | 5 | 7 | 12 | 17 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 27 | 22 | 16 | 9 | 6 |
| Rain (mm) | 77 | 65 | 64 | 51 | 76 | 64 | 69 | 59 | 62 | 75 | 79 | 92 |
April is the driest month (51 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 27 °C). 92 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 66 nights a year. The climate in Wissembourg →
Neighbors
Next to Wissembourg
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, colored by the share of their land in protected areas.
Soultz-sous-ForêtsBetschdorfSeltzSoufflenheimReichshoffenNiederbronn-les-BainsWissembourg
Under 1%1–10 %10–25 %25–50 %50 %+
| Town | Protected | Woodland | Paths (km/km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wissembourg | 67% | 54% | 1.6 |
| Soultz-sous-Forêts 3,121 · 12 km | 100% | 37% | 1.1 |
| Betschdorf 4,231 · 16 km | 49% | 41% | 0.2 |
| Seltz 3,204 · 19 km | 57% | 36% | 0.6 |
| Soufflenheim 4,740 · 23 km | 0.8% | 46% | 1.8 |
| Reichshoffen 5,418 · 24 km | 100% | 27% | 0.5 |
| Niederbronn-les-Bains 4,347 · 24 km | 100% | 74% | 2.6 |
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Protected areas. National-park cores, national parks’ outer areas, regional nature parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites, from INPN. A national park’s core is strictly protected; its outer area and a regional park are charters between communes, not bans. Designations overlap, so the total counts each piece of land once.
- Woodland. Forest and woods as OpenStreetMap maps them, private woods included: woods nobody has mapped are missing, and a mapped wood isn’t necessarily open to walkers.
- Footpaths and hiking routes. Footpaths, bridleways, steps and tracks open on foot, then waymarked hiking routes (GR and others) measured apart. A route often follows a path or lane already counted: the two overlap. Paths nobody has mapped are missing.
- Green space nearby. The share of residents (INSEE’s 200 m grid) within 800 m, as the crow flies, of a mapped park, garden or wood edge. It measures nearness, not a way in. Guadeloupe and French Guiana have no grid: their pages say whether the town center is within 800 m.
- The coast. The straight-line distance from the town center to OpenStreetMap’s coastline, which follows the tide line into estuaries. A commune is on the coast when the coastline crosses its boundary.
- No grade yet. U.S. and UK towns have an Outdoors Grade; French towns don’t yet. Each figure is set beside the median of compared communes (those with an overall grade) in the département and in France, each figure its own median.
Questions about the outdoors in Wissembourg
Is Wissembourg in a national or regional nature park?
Yes: Wissembourg lies in Vosges du Nord Regional Nature Park (37% of the commune).
Are there good walks in Wissembourg?
OpenStreetMap maps 77 km of footpaths and tracks open on foot in the commune, 1.6 km per km² (the median compared town: 1.7 km per km²); 79 km of waymarked hiking routes cross it.
How much of Wissembourg is woodland?
54% of the commune is mapped woodland, private woods included; the median compared French town has 13%.
Is Wissembourg near the sea?
No: the coast is 429 km from the town center, as the crow flies.
When is the best time for walking in Wissembourg?
April to September: long days, mild highs and little rain, from Météo-France’s 1991–2020 normals at the nearest suitable station.
Why is there no Outdoors Grade for French towns?
TownRatings grades the outdoors in the U.S. and the UK; the French figures are new and not graded yet. This page sets each one beside the median compared French town instead.
Sources: INPN / PatriNat (protected areas 2026, Natura 2000 2024) · © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL (paths, hiking routes, woods, coast, gardens) · INSEE, Filosofi 2021 200 m grid (residents) · IGN Admin Express (boundaries) · Météo-France normals 1991–2020 · Medians and percentiles: TownRatings, over compared French towns, updated November 9, 2026. Under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab).
Contains public sector information under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab): INSEE, DGFiP, the Interior Ministry’s statistics service (SSMSI), the Ministry of Education (DEPP), the Health Ministry’s statistics service (DREES) and the Housing Ministry (Carte des loyers). Commune boundaries: IGN Admin Express.